Axial Anomaly and Chiral Asymmetry in Magnetized Relativistic Matter

The generation of a chiral shift parameter in the normal ground state of magnetized relativistic matter is discussed. The chiral shift contributes to the axial current density, but does not modify the conventional axial anomaly relation. The analysis based on gauge invariant regularization schemes suggests that this finding is also valid in gauge theories. We argue that the chiral shift parameter can affect observable properties of compact stars. In the regime of heavy ion collisions, the chiral shift parameter can modify the key features of the chiral magnetic effect.